The Daily Platypus

Two weeks ’til Spring Break but still much to do. Room 15 kids are completing their second trimester of US History with History Jeopardy on Wednesday and their history exam on Thursday. This exam covers 1776 to 1845–The American Revolution to Westward Expansion. It also includes review material from the first trimester.  All of this material appears in each student’s history journal, which they should be studying all week.  . . . We’ve completed our second “Book Club” with a culminating book review and comprehension test.  Students who didn’t fare well on the test will have an opportunity to do a make-up assignment, but because report cards are due on the 19th, they’ll need to get their work done quickly. Homework reading through Spring Break will be from material of the student’s choosing. In class we’ll be participating in DARE, learning how to write indirect quotations, reading from Storyworks, balancing our checkbooks, and more. We also hope to resume work on student web-pages. Also stay tuned for more information about our April 30th community service field trip.

Math kids are working this week on metric measure, a prerequisite to our upcoming geometry unit. We’ll also be starting a mini-mathketball tourney to close out the winter term. Room 15 math kids, by the way, have done well on the State Math Test. Nearly 80% have already met! Here’s the homework for this week: Tuesday, March 9; Wednesday, March 10; Thursday, March 11; Friday, March 12.

This week represents four of the final 12 class days before Spring Break, so we’re keeping things as simple and straight-forward as possible. We’re wrapping up our Book Clubs. Students reading BFG, Blue Dolphins, or James and the Giant Peach were expected to have finished their books by Tuesday, March 2nd. They’ll be working on a culminating project in class and as homework. Students reading Where the Red Fern Grows are expected to be finished by Friday of this week. I know several students are not completing their reading, so parents please check in with them. Also this week we’re working on our third and final play, The Baltimore Plot. Students who performed in last Friday’s plays (Box Brown and Freedom for the First Time) did a great job! We’ll also be preparing for next week’s History Jeopardy and exam by reviewing everything from Columbus to The Oregon Trail.

Math students are heading back into the computer lab for state testing this week, so we’ll be winding down our “crash course” in test prep and tested concepts and heading into a unit on measurement.  Here’s the homework for this week: Tuesday, March 2; Wednesday, March 3rd; Thursday, March 4th; Friday, March 5th.

It’s not surprising 5th graders, being on the verge of adolescence, might begin demonstrating teenage behavior that can dismay and frustrate parents. The research on the subject is vast, but parents can lend themselves a hand with an excellent “manual” by Anthony Wolf, Phd. While this book doesn’t promise to fix the strong-willed child overnight, it gives parents tools to recognize and effectively deal with the behavior. This book was indispensable to me when raising (or attempting to raise) my own boys, and since then I’ve recommended it frequently. So, before your pre-teen gets the better of you, give this book a try. The first half is a bit clinical, and Dr. Wolf doesn’t shy away from reality, but those who read it through to the end and put into place these methods are sure to find it valuable. Click on the cover for more info about the book.

The primary focus in Room 15 this week will be preparation for two Black History Month play performances on Friday. At 10:30, Bailey B. and Clay B. star in The Daring Escape of Henry “Box” Brown, the true story about a man who escaped slavery by mailing himself in a crate to the North. At 11:00,  Kendra B. and Falon S. star in Freedom for the First Time. The play is based on actual slave narratives and depicts the end of the Civil War from the slaves’ perspective. Family members are welcome to attend.

Our math students have been working hard in preparation for round two of the State Test. This process involves immersion in the concepts appearing on the exam, discussions about test-taking strategies, and practice with test-approved calculators. During one of our practice tests last week, it became apparent that students still do not have a solid grasp on converting between fractions and decimals, so this week we’ll be reviewing those concepts heavily while also progressing with others. The kids return to the computer lab for their actual tests during the first week of March. Here’s the homework for this week: Tuesday, Feb. 23; Wednesday, Feb. 24; Thursday, Feb. 25; Friday, Feb. 26.

Congratulations to Room 15 kids Maddie, Melissa, Rachel, and Luke for taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the “Life in the Rogue Valley” art show at the Mall. Their work, along with 13 others from our class, shared space in the Mall with student art work from all the Central Point schools.

Congratulations also to Luke (photo right), Melissa, and Falon for winning the classroom bookmark contest. The contest was an element of our first “Book Club” of the year. Students started their second Book Club last week, reading from either Island of the Blue Dolphins, Where the Red Fern Grows, The BFG, or James and the Giant Peach. Students record specific reading tasks in their Vocabulary Journal each night, and they’re required to have a parent signature to get credit, so be sure to be checking those Journals. This week, students have a vocabulary exam on words from their first Book Club. These words are also listed in their Vocab Journals.

Parents, wondering how your child is doing in class? Ask him how much money he has in his classroom checkbook. Because the project rewards quality work and penalizes poor behavior, each student’s bottom line says a lot about his or her work ethic, behavior, and classroom performance. Any student with consistently less than $100 in the checkbook is struggling with attendance, behavior, and/or completing work. Any student who is “flat broke” is likely struggling with all three and is in need of some intervention, both at home and school. The project does a good job of foretelling a child’s future, but fifth grade presents an opportunity to make changes before a high school diploma or a roof over one’s head is at stake.

Another way to evaluate your child’’s classroom performance is on the student web pages. Students post many of their most significant projects, so a student with minimal material is clearly not keeping up. How’s your child doing? Click on numerous pages to get an idea of the expectations, then click on your own child’s page. Students recently posted their “In My Shoes” essay. This multi-paragraph writing task prompted kids to say how their shoes represent who they are. Walk a mile in a child’s shoes by clicking on the Student Web pages tab, above right.

Fourth Grade math students are continuing their preparation for the State Math Test. Over the next two weeks we’ll be looking at all the concepts covered on the test and practicing with the new TI30 calculators. Students can use any calculator with the homework, but they need to be estimating the answers in their head to confirm reasonableness and double checking all problems. Here are the homework sheets for this week: Tuesday, Feb. 16; Wednesday, Feb. 17; Thursday, Feb. 18; Friday, Feb. 19.

After all that fuss about the challenges of learning fractions and decimals, our 4th Grade Math students did a fantastic job on their final exam.  That testifies to all the hard work parents put in at home going over homework and attempting to reteach concepts, so thanks a lot parents!  This week students will be moving on to more State Test Prep. Yes, we’re headed for another bout of statetestitus. Students will be reviewing tested concepts, learning about test-taking strategies, and learning how to operate test-acceptable calculators. Class sets of these fancy new calculators have been provided each classroom, and because they’re the same calculators our students will use when they move on to middle school, this introduction to them should prove fruitful. Given the nature of these next three weeks, homework will be largely review exercises. Here are the sheets for this week: Tuesday, Feb. 9; Wednesday, Feb. 10; Thursday, Feb. 11; Friday, February 12.

As part of our “100 Favorite Things Project,” each student is maintaining a category on their individual webpages identifying and writing about the things they enjoy most about life. Though I started mine as the example or model, I’m finding that I’m learning a lot about myself as I create my list. Here’s another of my favorite things:

At the 21st Annual Tree Re-plant in Josephine County, members of the Rusty Relics tractor drivers sit around a big campfire in between shifts of hauling elementary kids up the hillside. They build a great fire, and upon returning form the trip the other day I found myself drawn to my little backyard fire pit where I promptly built a campfire of my own. There are few things more comforting and therapeutic than sitting around a good campfire, especially when it’s in a great locale. One of my best days of 2009 was spent in an abandoned campground on a sunny afternoon in the middle of winter. We had the place all to ourselves, a nice view of the lake, and a roaring campfire. Hard to beat that.